Posted February 14, 20223 yr comment_5975153 Ric Flair defends the NWA World Heavyweight Title This started slow but became really heated as the match went on. I mean, this crowd was hot! I haven't seen a ton of early 80s Flair babyface, but I had no idea he was this over. The crowd was screaming for him like he was Steamboat, Sting, or some other lifelong babyface, not a guy that would go on to be the biggest heel of the decade. The match started out with Ole working the arm, which made sense as you need to drag your opponent to all four corners in a strap match. However, this never really went anywhere as they eventually just transitioned into throwing bombs. At one point, I swear that Flair dragged Ole to all four corners but the ring announcer only counted three! Something I thought was really neat was Flair (and eventually Ole) tying his opponent's hands and dragging them to the corners with both of their own, using their head to tag the turnbuckle! I don't believe I had ever seen that in a strap/chain match before. The ending was kind of a letdown as I didn't really see any reason to protect Ole against the world champ, so it takes away from the overall final rating. ***½
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